cocktail_caipirinha

Rum Caipirinha

A delicious take on the classic Caipirinha cocktail, this Rum Caipirinha drink blends the rich, full flavour of Captain Morgan Original Spiced Gold rum with zinging lime and sugar. Evoking tropical getaways and the spirit of celebration, the Rum Caipirinha is one of the great party drinks.

About this recipe

Ingredients

Captain Morgan® Original Spiced Gold

Captain Morgan® Original Spiced Gold

Captain Morgan Original Spiced Gold is inspired by the Caribbean's beauty and abundant nature, with a delicious smooth-bodied and subtly spicy flavour.

How to make

Using a knife and chopping board, cut a lime into 4 wedges.

Place the lime wedges and 1tsp sugar into a tumbler.

Press down on the lime wedges and sugar in a highball glass using a muddler to extract juices and flavour.

Top up the glass with ice cubes.

Using a jigger, measure 50ml Captain Morgan Original Spiced Gold into the glass.

Stir using a bar spoon until the mixture is well combined to complete your Caipirinha.

Be a good host

Everyone loves a bit of finger food and designated drivers will appreciate some fancy soft drinks.

Caipirinha

Ingredients

• 1 lime
• 1 tablespoon superfine sugar
• 2 ounces Cachaça*
• Crushed ice

Directions

*Cachaça is a Brazilian brandy made from sugar cane.

Cut up a lime into 8 wedges. Muddle the wedges in a rocks glass with sugar. Add Cachaça and top with ice. Stir and serve.

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The Caipirinha Recipe: The National Drink of Brazil

• 3 mins
• Prep: 3 mins,
• Cook: 0 mins
• Yield: 1 serving

Every distilled spirit has its signature cocktail: tequila has the margarita, gin the martini, and rum the mojito. When it comes to cachaça, the must-have drink is the caipirinha.

The caipirinha (pronounced kai-purr-REEN-yah) is the national drink of Brazil. It is the most popular cocktail in the South American country and everyone has their own way of making it. Today, it is a hit worldwide and should be on the list of every home and pro bartender.

The basic recipe is incredibly simple, requiring just three ingredients. It's made in a similar way to the old-fashioned and mojito: a simple fruit and sugar muddle topped with a shot of liquor. The liquor of choice here is cachaça, the Brazillian take on rum that distills fresh sugar cane juice rather than molasses.

With the sweetened lime and cachaça mix, you will have one of the most refreshing cocktails you can mix up. If you're new to cachaça or have a new bottle to try out, this is the one cocktail you need. Plus, as you'll see, it can serve as inspiration for many other tasty drinks.

What You'll Need

• 1/2 lime
• 1/2 to 2 teaspoons sugar, to taste
• 2 ounces
• cachaça

How to Make It

1. Cut half of a lime into small wedges.
2. Place the lime and sugar into an old-fashioned glass and muddle well.
3. Add a few ice cubes.
4. Top the drink with cachaça.
5. Stir well.

About That Sugar

While you can use the same white cane sugar you bake with, you'll find that superfine sugar tends to be a better choice for cocktails. That's because the finer crystals are easier to dissolve and this is particularly useful in a cocktail like a caipirinha which doesn't have a lot of liquid or hard core mixing.

Don't worry about hunting down a specialty sugar, either. It's very easy to transform your ordinary kitchen sugar into superfine sugar if you have a food processor or blender.

You will also notice that the recipe recommends anywhere from 1/2 to 2 teaspoons of sugar. This range allows you to customize the cocktail's sweetness to your particular taste and the cachaça you're pouring at the moment.

Some cachaças are sweeter than others and quite a few are aged, so there are times when less sugar creates a better drink. Experiment on your own and find that perfect balance for you.

How Strong Is the Caipirinha

Much like other liquor-only muddled cocktails, there is not much in the caipirinha to dilute the drink. If we factor in a little lime juice and a slight amount of ice dilution, we can estimate that your caipirinha will be around 30 percent ABV (60 proof).

That's slightly lower than the bottling strength of the average 80-proof cachaça. Of course, it will be stronger with a higher proof liquor. Keep this in mind because it may be a great tasting drink, but it is certainly not a weak one.

Put a Twist on the Caipirinha

The most popular cocktails frequently act as a base that we can twist, turn, and manipulate to create fun and exciting new drinks. The caipirinha is no exception and the bar can become our playground with this simple formula.

One of the easiest ways to adapt the drink is to shake it then serve it up to create a caipirini. Add a little extra flavor to that and mix up a spiced pear caipirini, which is fabulous for autumn and winter.

If you want to take the lime-cachaça mix and transform it into a summer treat, consider turning it into a frozen ice pop.

Returning to the original recipe, if you have a fruit that can handle the muddler you can add it to the caipirinha. It's a perfect drink for the season's best produce and an entirely new experience every time.

For example, in the heat of summer toss a few berries into the glass for a raspberry caipirinha or a lemon, lime and blue caipirinha. When you want something exotic, mix up the likes of the kumquat-ginger caipirinha. And, when the autumn leaves start to appear, bring in some apple, cinnamon, and sage for a pleasant homecoming caipirinha.

Let these recipes serve as inspiration. See what new fruits, herbs, and other ingredients are at the produce market and don't be afraid to accent it with a liqueur for extra flavor. The possibilities are endless with a great bottle of cachaça and a muddler in your hand, so have fun and see where your taste buds take you.

Caipirinha

• Display recipe in:

How to make:

1. Cut lime in half (from pole to pole) and slice on half into 3-4mm thick half-moon shaped segments and drop into the base of a robust rocks glass.

Stirrer (spoon, wooden lolly stick or stick cut from sugar cane)

If you are European or in North America you're probably used to this drink being served with crushed ice, but until you have tried it with cubed ice you have not really experienced a Caipirinha. Be sure to muddle the lime and sugar well and stir both before adding ice and after.

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Previous Cocktail

1. Cut lime in half (from pole to pole) and then slice one of the halves into eight 3-4mm thick half-moon shaped segments and drop into the base of a robust rocks glass. .

Next Cocktail

Caipirinha (Contemporary Serve)

MUDDLE lime wedges in the base of shaker to release juice and oils in its skin. Add cachaça and sugar. SHAKE with 6oz scoop crushed ice and pour all without straining into glass.

Caipirinhas – history, styles, flavours & how to make

Pronounced 'Kai-Pur-Een-Ya', this traditional Brazilian cocktail is made by muddling limes with sugar and then adding cachaça and ice. It's a simple rustic drink, usually served.

Cocktail glassware

Cocktails are something of a luxury. You don’t just ping a cap and pour – they take a degree of time and skill to mix, so deserve a decent and appropriate glass.

Sugar and sugar syrup

Many cocktails benefit from sweetening but granulated sugar does not dissolve easily in cold liquids, particularly alcohol. Hence pre-dissolved sugar syrup (also known as 'simple.

In Brazil, Cachaça is also marketed under the name caninha (‘little cane’) or as ‘aguardente de cana’, which means ‘distillate of cane’ but could be uncharitably.

Measuring cocktail ingredients

Balancing each ingredient within a cocktail is key to making a great drink. Therefore the accuracy with which ingredients are measured is critical to the finished cocktail.

Stirrers & How to stir a cocktail

Stirring is the most basic way of mixing a cocktail. You might not give much thought to a technique used to stir a cup of tea or even a pot of paint, but cocktails deserve a little.

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Recipe for a Caipirinha Cocktail - the Famous Cachaca Drink From Brazil

Introduction: Recipe for a Caipirinha Cocktail - the Famous Cachaca Drink From Brazil

My version of the Caipirinha cocktail: delightfully refreshing and powerfully alcoholic drink based on cachaca.

Step 1: Some Information, Ingredient List and Required Tools

• a jigger for measuring (I cannot be held responsible for anyone "free handing")
• cachaca
• lime(s)
• teaspoon measure
• coarse sugar
• ice cubes
• muddler, aka pestle aka "mashing stick"
• short, wide glass(es) (Old Fashioned type)
• sharp knife and cutting board
• short straw(s)

Step 2: Rinse and Dry the Limes

Start by rinsing and drying the lime(s). (I'm not usually drinking alone so I wash several.)[[BR]]

Since you do not remove the rinds from the drink, the skin should be clean - at least peel the fruit stickers off![[BR]]

(BTW, I'm taking the photographs while Mrs. Caipirinha does the actual work here.)

Step 3: Remove Some of the Rind

Remove the thicker rind top and bottom ends and any unsightly blemishes.

Step 4: Pith Removal

Half the limes with a knife and cut a "V" groove to remove the center pithy part from each half. (You don't want her/him to complain their drink is full of pith!)

Step 5: Cut Into Small Pieces

Slice each lime half into 8 pieces

Step 6: Place Pieces in Glass

Depending on the size of the lime, its juiciness and your serving size, place 1/2 to all of the lime into a short, wide glass. I don't recommend a tall tumbler since you are going to "get a little rough" with the lime pieces soon and need room to mash.

Step 7: Add Coarse Sugar

Add 3 teaspoons of coarse sugar. Here I usually use 1 teaspoon of coarse (to aid grinding the limes) and 2 teaspoons of ordinary granular sugar (to hasten dissolving/sweetening - plus I'm cheap).

Step 8: Muddle (what a Great Word!)

Muddle, grind, pulverize, mash those lime pieces right in the glass with a "mashing stick". During the early days I used a "wooden thing in the drawer" that turned out to be a tart shell pastry shaper. Now, thanks to my daughter who returned from Germany with an official Pitu brand muddler, I can mash and muddle with the best of them. This wooden device has a nice handle and knurled bottom face.[[BR]]

What you find to mash with is obviously up to you but the purpose is to get the juice out of the lime pieces and at the same time release some of the sour citrus oil from the rind. Leave it all in the glass.

Step 9: Crushed Ice

Now you'll need finely crushed ice. For those schmucks that don't have an automatic machine (like me), here's what I find efficient: a thick plastic bag and a hammer.[[BR]]

Place 4 large ice cubes into a thick plastic bag. In Ontario, our milk comes in bags perfectly sized for this. Let the air out of the bag and on a flat surface, whack the ice/bag with a hammer to get very small ice pieces/water. The hammer held by the young lady is a meat tenderizer and the flat side works great.

Step 10: Add Ice to the Glass

Now simply pick up the bag and pour ice contents into the glass. You can avoid dumping half the ice on the counter by holding the bag's open end to form a smaller exit hole and shake the closed end.

Step 11: Add More Sugar and the Cachaça

Add a final teaspoon of coarse sugar and pour 1 to 2 ounces of cachaça over the ice

Step 12: Add a Straw and Stir

Serve with a short straw (bendy type or whatever you have, but a straw is important).[[BR]]

Step 13: The Environmentally Friendly Drink!

When you get to the bottom and begin making disgusting slurp noises, remove the straw and tip the glass up to get every last drop, toss the lime remnants into the composter and repeat!

Step 14: Cheers!

There are some who will balk at the complexity/time of preparation. To those I would say stick to your mass produced, artificially coloured and flavoured liquids where you simply "snap a cap". This drink is about standing around the kitchen, yacking, savouring its taste and is sibling to the "Slow Food" movement.

0nly had some Pitu [same as the brand you show] at the local grab. I have read about this drink an decided to give it a go. It is 'tart', but not too much to make it a deal breaker. The only 'raw' sugar I could find locally was a coarse grain Turbinado Cane Sugar and of course the garden variety limes. On the net have found where folks use lemons but don't think that lemons are the 'real deal'. any way thanks for the recipe and photos.

so a caipriniha can be made w/any fruit or liquor, and still be called a caipriniha unlike a marguerita has to have tequila, or some drinks have to have gin.like an authentic Martini, unless it is a vodka martini, a Harvey Wallbanger is orange juice and Galiano. made with vodka it is a screwdriver. or a brandy alexander should use brandy. or those drinks made w/rum that have different names depending on the mixers. what is in a name. as once stated "a rose by any other name is still a rose"

No, it must be made from cachaca. For example, when made with vodka it is called a "Caipiroska". I think any sour citrus can make up the fruit part though and there is always a discussion of what a lemon or lime actually describes and it depends on the country you are in.

I haven't had a chance to make the drink yet but wanted to say thanks. That is an outstanding shirt to instructable in.

I am doing New Years Eve. When trying this in Portugal it was made in a large jug and then poured. The lady in this article is well qualified to make this. Beware, the Brazilians drink this at carnival, We ended up skinny dipping in our villa, inhibitions are lowered, looking forward to New Years eve.

I am brazilan and speak a little english, but, i want help you , about the caipirinha, any fruit cítrica is poossible to make a caipirinha ok.

thanks my dears.

Although this traditional caipirinha recipe is pretty delicious and I do try it all the time, sometimes I get tired of lime. I have been mixing a lot of different variations of caipirinha lately. Using different liquors like vodka and even sake. I've also been testing out different types of fruits. I've found some nice recipes here: http://www.caipirinharecipes.com/category/caipirin.

I'm still looking for a good cachaça brand though, since pitu and 51 are really considered low grade in Brazil.

First drink happiness,second dancing samba,third speak portuguese,fourth dancing samba without music,fifth u come back to neighbours home. cachaca is a perfect apperitif

It is cool in summer.

1: Grinding is intended and the point of the muddling. Some people prefer it without grinding, but the original recipe calls for grinding (therefore coarse sugar).

I am really confused by you guys' exchange. You say that it isn't limes, but lemons, and then you say that it is actually persian limes.

Persian limes are the most common fruit sold as limes in North America, with key limes coming in second. It looks to me like that is a persian lime on the cutting board of the picture. Am I missing something?

Lime is Limão in english. Lemon is Lima in portuguese. This confusion is common. Lime is green, lemon is yellow. Limão é verde e lima é amarela.

Lime is lima in English. Lemon is limão in Portuguese. Your confusion is common. The source of the confusion is one single specific species, the Persian Lime, which in Portuguese is called a limão. Every other species of lime is called lima in Portuguese, every other species of limão is called lemon in English. Please do some research before spreading misconceptions.

Lalo, may be in Portugal, but in Brasil, Persian Lime is known in Brasil as Lima da Pérsia, Limão is green in Brasil and in english the green fruit is called lime. Please, look at my blog 1000caipirinhas.blogspot.com where you will see several videos from Youtube where people name those fruits accordingly. Thanks for noting that in other portuguese speaking places there can be differences.

I'm Brazilian, I've never set foot in Portugal. Persian lime is known in Brazil as limão taiti. I've never heard of “lima da Pérsia”. The fact that you have a blog doesn't mean you have facts. again, please do some research before you spread misconceptions.

Espero que tenha gostado do meu comentário colocado abaixo onde consegui tirar suas dúvidas sobre as diferenças entre lima da persia, limão taití, e lima. Um abraço!

Não vejo comentário abaixo, e eu não tenho dúvida nenhuma pra tirar, não sei de onde você tirou essa “informação” toda.

Na verdade também é conhecido por limão siciliano. Nomes populares. quem sabe

It's also known as sicilian lemon. Popular names. who knows.

Actually man, The lemons make the drink wayy too bitter. The best way to do it would be to peel off a lime, then slice it and crush it with a pestle. And the real one uses limes, but in brazil, we call them "Limão" and what you guys call lemons we call "Lima".

The lemons make the drink as bitter as it's supposed to be, since the drink is made with lemons and not limes. If it's too bitter, you're not using the right amount of sugar, or cachaça, or not doing it correctly.

Lalo, you are correct, limão is not lime. But my point is to make sure people do not mistake lime and lemon, as in portuguese we use lime (Citrus latifolia (yu. tanaka) tanaka ) to make caipirinhas. And we usually use the word lima to name Citrus xlimon that is called lemon in english.

check these links:

Citrus xlimon (lima)

I absolutely love this drink, thanks for posting the instructions. :) I was also introduced to it in Germany!

You can look at 1000caipirinhas.blogspot.com to check for several recipes and variations on this drink. I hope you enjoy!

I wanted to pass along some information that first time caipirinha makers might find helpful.

If you want a lot of caipirinha recipes please, take a look at: 1000caipirinhas.blogspot.com this is a video colection of caipirinha recipes with several variations!

Yum. Thanks for the instructions, I want to make this and this a great tutorial! Have you tried it with brown sugar? That's the only way I've had it, and it is delicious.

Great idea! I was thinking of whether this would turn out OK with regular old granulated sugar (since I don't have the rough stuff right now, and live in Belgium, and am not sure how easy sugar-in-the-raw would be to get in a Belgian supermarket), but using brown is a fascinating alternative. Thanks! :)

If you still want to use coarse sugar, it is also called turbinado sugar.

In several places in Brazil caipirinha is made with brown sugar. But not the very raw one but the one we call demerara sugar. The taste matches with the cachaça very well.

Very good recipe. Very complete and correct. I have a blog with a collection of videos in Youtube that teaches how to prepare a caipirinha or a variation on a caipirinha. You will find there that despite there is this standard as teached in this post above, there are several nice variations. I hope you check my blog and enjoy! Not only the serious recipes but also the crazy ones.

Where are the lemons?

Caipirinha can be made with Cachaça,Pinga, Aguardente, Vodka, Sake or Rum. I've done them with limes(lemons don't taste so good), Pineapples, Kiwii, Strawberries, Watermelons and, my favourite, Tropical mix(every juicy fruit you may happen to have in your fridge). Cheers from São Paulo-Brasil

Great instructable sounds like a great adult beverage, i will be face first on the floor this weekend because of these i am sure. Props for the cleav shots, your mrs. is a real looker.

I've been keen to try cachaca since seeing it on Thirsty Traveler. I find this recipe even more motivating, for some reason(s). @@ There goeth more of my hard-earned paycheque to the L.C.B.O. Maybe I should just work there. Perhaps they have employee discounts.

Certainly having a couple of drinking 'buddies' along makes any imbibing session much more enjoyable than a solitary pursuit. Sneaking up on a quarter century of marital bliss. Cheers.

Congratulations. How long have you been drinking caipirinhas? I'm curious about whether the type of beverage has any effect on the enjoyability of the imbibing session. Mrs. packrat, a drinker of wine most of the time, seems to just get mildly abusive, then falls asleep. I've ordered a bottle of Pitu, and will conduct a highly scientific study.

I recommend less cleavage.

Cleavage (among other things) paid my way through college, and has helped me pay for a few cars. The amount of cleavage featured here is just right. I have not been able to find Cachaca or a trendy muddle (or is it muddler?). But I made this drink with both white rum and white tequilla and both turned out just fine, although I went with a little less sugar. I do most of my muddling with a miniture Louisville Slugger souvenir bat (I have a few, but usually use my Rico Carty autographed version, on which I've filed a few criss-cross slits into the handle end for extra crushing prowess) and it works very well for virtually all muddling tasks. I use this same device for crushing mint when I make mint juleps. Where does one find Cachaca?

Check http://www.deltatranslator.com/cachaca.htm#names for just some of the ways of calling it. And as for finding it, should you ever come to Brazil, you'll find it just around EVERY corner. Just in my state, Minas Gerais (where the most famous ones come from) there are over 1.000 brands. Can you afford it? Well, try Germana, by far the best, the problem is it can cost from US$60 to US$100 a bottle, but believe you me, it flies you to heaven (it can also fly you to deepest hell, if not careful)

Viva la difference!

Really? I recommend more.

HELP GUYS. Am having party for 50 and want to serve Caipirinhas to start with. Any ideas. I don't mind slaving over glasses in the kitchen but for 50! Not sure that would be clever as what an earth would happen to the food in the meantime! Any advice gratefully appreciated. Thanks in hope!

Obrigada for advice!! My Viking husband and I spent 2 months in Brasil this year and landed up in Buzios where we spent many a day and night enjoying this wonderful drink! We are now in Cape Town so thought I would definitely intoduce it to the natives here. they make something similar, but not as good!!

I have heard you can make pitchers instead of individual glasses. I have not done this but: I have made Caipirinhas to travel and one piece of advice I would give you is to remove most of the lime rinds leaving a couple for looks only since while you want some bitterness, leaving the rinds in too long makes the drink unbearable. Maybe you could mix all except the ice in the pitcher and pour it over crushed ice in a glass??

12 leaves of fresh mint

1/5 spoon (soup) of sugar or the taste you choose

Juice of half lemon

Cachaça Gabriela Silver to complete (30 ml)

Put the sugar and the leaves of mint at the glass and crush them until you have a little juice. Add the rushed ice to almost complete the cup. After that, add the juice of the half lemon and finally the Cachaça Gabriela Silver. Mix the drink with a spoon until it becomes a green color.

Really nice! You really get what Caipirinha is about: having your buddies anxiously hanging around the kitchen while you work your magic. Very good think you mentioned about removing the white center part - it makes your drink get bitter. Oh, and you're right about getting rid of what's left in the glass - some lazy people have the nasty habit of simply pouring some more cachaça on it and think they have another round ready. Yeah, right. I'd just change one thing: I'm a little on the James Bond side - I like it shaken, not stirred. Cheers from Brazil.

Recipe of Caipirinha Gabriela

- 1 Tablespoon of sugar

- 4-6 cl of Cachaça Gabriela

Hello everyone. We are a Brazilian Trade company and we offer Brazilian Spirit known as Cachaça or Aguardente that we are introducing in the international market and they are being much appreciated in Europe. If you are interested in those goods, please feel free to contact us at brazil-trade@hotmail.com We will send you the goods description and the price list. We can send you some samples to check the quality out. Cheers.

Nice! Have you tried with Vodka instead of Cachaca? It's called Caipivodka (It's just as lethal as with cachaca) ;) Actually you can make caipirinha with all kinds of fruits, pinaple, kiwi fruit, strawberry, cashew fruit, tangerine, passion fruit, even grapes, just to name a few. Cheers from RJ - BR

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On the Cocktail Trail in Brazil, a Favorite Spirit Gets Frisky

By BRYCE T. BAUER SEPT. 28, 2017

As in many large countries, most of the popular stereotypes about Brazil unravel with the slightest tug. A nation of sunny beaches and exquisite tans on svelte bods? Sure, and chilly mountain towns and linebackers in the German enclaves in the south, as well. Dysfunctional politics? In the extreme, but what is functional politics nowadays, anyway?

Yet, in one area the homogeneity holds: the nation’s drink. If you said anything other than cachaça and the caipirinha, you’re thinking of the wrong place.

Across an area the size of the contiguous United States, there are thousands of cachaça stills, many unlicensed, that produce hundreds of millions of liters of the spirit annually.

What is clear is that the vast majority of it is consumed in Brazil and is a cheap variety, lacking in complex flavor, akin to fuel ethanol, and typically drunk neat or as a part of the caipirinha cocktail, said Felipe Jannuzzi, the co-founder of Mapa da Cachaça, which is an amalgam of sorts of sociology, guide and advocacy for high-quality cachaça.

But in São Paulo, the Brazilian metropolis that has always bucked some of the clichés about the nation (there are no beaches, for one), a few bars and bartenders are working to elevate cachaça as a connoisseur-worthy drink and as a key component of the city’s nascent cocktail culture. On a recent visit, I decided to stop in at a few of these to see how such cachaça was being used.

To get a sense of the wide variety of cachaças available, Mr. Jannuzzi and I took a seat at Empório Sagarana, a bar in the Vila Romana neighborhood (there’s also a second location in hip Vila Madalena) that is styled as a traditional boteco of the state of Minas Gerais, a stronghold of cachaça production. Instead of a typical selection of just a few cachaças, Empório Sagarana sports a menu of dozens, many with tasting notes. It also begins with a manifesto of what is good cachaça, which Mr. Jannuzzi helped write.

While Empório Sagarana serves a few pre-bottled cocktails, it is mainly a cachaça and beer place. As we sipped from shot glasses of Serra Limpa, one of the first organic cachaças, and another from Fascinação, Mr. Jannuzzi explained that cachaça comes in two main varieties: industrial and artisanal. Both are made from fresh sugar cane juice (unlike most rums, which are made from molasses), but the former is made on large column stills; the latter, the only type connoisseurs consider worthy to drink, is made on a smaller scale using pot stills. Like rum, cachaça is sold both unaged and aged. Unlike rum, however, cachaça producers don’t limit their aging to just oak — instead they may use barrels made from any of a couple dozen different Brazilian woods. Moreover, a small avant-garde of producers has recently started highlighting different varieties of sugar cane as well as releasing vintage cachaças, Mr. Jannuzzi said. All of this gives the handful of bartenders working seriously with cachaça in craft cocktails in São Paulo a wide gamut of flavors to experiment with and the ability to create cocktails highlighting an individual bottle, he said.

“They are making cocktails thinking of the brands, they use only one cachaça. I really like that. A cocktail custom-made for one brand of cachaça,” he said.

When I visited the bar Guarita in the Pinheiros neighborhood, the bartenders Jean Ponce and David Barreiro said that they often choose a cachaça for a cocktail based on the wood the cachaça was aged in. Amburana wood-aged cachaças, for example, work well in classic cocktails and with vermouth, while white cachaças and those with the almond and anise notes that come from bálsamo wood pair well with lime.

“Bálsamo wood is the future of cachaça,” Jean Ponce said via Greg Caisley, the bar’s owner and chef (Mr. Caisley, an Australian expat, served as translator for my conversation). “It is a very complex wood, it is a wood that speaks, it has minerals, herbs, citrus, it is perfect for cocktails.”

“You’ll understand when you taste it,” Mr. Ponce added, whipping me up a caipirinha made with Canarinha, a bálsamo-wood aged cachaça from Salinas, a city in the state of Minas Gerais and a stronghold of cachaça production. The Canarinha added more complexity than a typical caipirinha with unaged cachaça, as well as some bitterness; overall, it was a drier and, perhaps, a less-beach friendly concoction.

While many of the cachaça cocktails I had in São Paulo that weren’t caipirinhas were riffs on common whiskey cocktails, often with lots of vermouth, at Guarita Mr. Ponce often creates cocktails that show the spirit’s lighter side.

By The New York Times

One, made with cachaça, tonic water and simple syrup, also included turmeric and Rangpur lime and was garnished with the herb rue, known in Brazil as arruda — a nod, popular among the city’s bartenders, to the country’s incredible botanical richness. In São Paulo, I also had cocktails made with the leaves of the pitanga tree, tonka beans (known as cumaru), and the bulbous yellow-orange fruit of the cashew tree, called caju. I also encountered at least three different lime varieties in frequent use, which made decoding which particular variety was in which particular cocktail, maddening. For reference: the standard-issue green Persian lime is the limão-tahiti, the Rangpur lime goes either by limão-capeta or limão-cravo, while a limão-galego is a key lime.

Overall, bartenders say they are eager to craft cocktails that are distinctly Brazilian. However, there are some challenges that are inherent to working with cachaça.

One is that beyond the caipirinha and another cocktail, recently resurgent, called a Rabo de Galo (meaning Tail of the Rooster, or cocktail) that is made from cachaça, vermouth and a bitter, Brazil lacks an indigenous cocktail culture, said Spencer Amereno Jr., the head bartender at Frank Bar in the Maksoud Plaza hotel.

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“We are creating a way to mix cachaça,” he said of the city’s ascendant class of craft bartenders. “It is hard because there is no tradition of mixing cachaça in cocktails, unlike in the U.S., which, for example, has had the book ‘How to Mix Drinks’ since 1862.”

At Frank Bar, Mr. Amereno said he turns to classic cocktails to think of how to use cachaça best. However, that doesn’t mean he’s merely recreating the classics with the native spirit.

“I don’t use the simple thinking: I’ll substitute cachaça for bourbon. I like to put tradition in typical Brazilian cocktails,” he said.

For example, for the version of the Rabo de Galo that he made me he turned to the Manhattan for inspiration. The result, made with oak-aged Leblon Signature Merlet cachaça (known in the United States as Leblon Reserva Especial), two sweet vermouths (Carpano Antica and Noilly Prat) and Angostura bitters, was rich and a bit sultry.

In working with cachaça, Mr. Amereno said, he also must confront perceptions by Brazilians that the spirit, and the cocktails traditionally made from it, are low-quality and unsophisticated.

“We have a number of Brazilian customers who think cachaça is harsh and they don’t like it. I try to surprise them and put value in cocktails with cachaça,” he said.

Nonetheless, it takes only a quick glance at the menus of many cocktail bars, where drinks made from gin and whiskey vastly outnumber those made from cachaça, to understand how far the native spirit has to go before it reaches the prominence of its globalized brethren.

That doesn’t mean you have to shun cachaça in its more traditional iteration of the caipirinha. Far from a relic of a less sophisticated era or an embarrassing marker of an out-of-touch bar and an uninventive bartender, when done properly the caipirinha can capture the qualities the city’s top bartenders are striving for, being both distinctly Brazilian and a showcase of skill. It was a point made clearly when, on my last full day in São Paulo, I found myself 45 minutes from the city center at the restaurant Mocotó, a haven of Northeastern Brazilian cuisine that is so celebrated that it not only spawned more recommendations than any other place in my travels around the city, but also has inspired an haute cuisine spinoff called Esquina Mocotó.

The original remains humble, and when I walked up to the bar with Marcello Gaya, the Leblon brand ambassador, I had the option of ordering various caipirinhas made from an assortment of the fresh fruit that makes Brazil a produce-lover’s paradise.

At Mr. Gaya’s suggestion, I went with a caipirinha três limões, or a three-lime caipirinha, which includes as citrus the Persian lime, the Rangpur lime and lemon (or limão-siciliano) and was one of the first caipirinha variations to make it big, Mr. Gaya said. When it arrived, it was exquisite — hitting a perfect balance of booze, acid and sweetness achieved by only the best daiquiris (both drinks rely on the same tricky balance of flavors and like the daiquiri, the caipirinha is often served too sweet).

“That’s their knowledge, the muddling, they have different fruit every day, some days this is sweeter,” Mr. Gaya said holding up a Rangpur lime, “some days more acidic, so you have to know what you are doing.”

Bryce T. Bauer is the author of “Gentlemen Bootleggers: The True Story of Templeton Rye, Prohibition, and a Small Town in Cahoots” (Chicago Review Press).

A version of this article appears in print on October 8, 2017, on Page TR7 of the New York edition with the headline: On the Cocktail Trail, a Spirit Gets Frisky. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

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Caipirinha Cocktail

Brazil’s most popular cocktail is quickly becoming one of mine, too. My first Caipirinha Cocktail (pronounced kai-pee-reen-ya) was at a book club meeting (don’t I have fun friends. ). Lime was muddled with raw sugar (or a sugar syrup), then Cachaça (a Brazilian rum) and crushed ice were added to produce a cool, refreshing, yet potent beverage. The literal translation is “little countryside drink.”

Cachaça (ka-shah-suh) is made from the fermented juice of sugar cane vs. the molasses of ordinary rum. You can use sugar syrup or raw sugar for muddling the limes, and there is a debate as to whether to serve with crushed ice or ice cubes. The flavors are quite similar to a Daiquiri, but with a rustic appearance due to the pulverized lime pieces in the bottom of the glass. These babies are potent…and can really pack a punch. Make certain they are well stirred, so each cocktail has enough sugar. And as the crushed ice melts, the sips become sweeter and smoother. I am certain these Caipirinha cocktails will be a hit at our annual neighborhood 4th of July gathering. Our “little countryside” will be our backyard where the grill will be smoking, mosquitoes will be buzzing and fireflies glowing. Lots of laughter…and maybe even a few fireworks. Next I need to figure out my dessert menu…

Caipirinha Cocktail

Ingredients

• 2 ounces Cachaça
• Half a lime, cut in quarters
• 2 teaspoons raw sugar or 1/2 ounce simple syrup
• Crushed ice

Instructions

1. Place lime pieces in bottom of a high ball glass. Muddle the limes by pressing and twisting with a muddler.
2. Add Cachaça and crushed ice and stir. Garnish with a lime slice if desired.

Yield: 1 serving

Total time: 5 minutes

Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs:

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What a refreshing summer cocktail, love the lime!

Lime tartness swirled with heady rum has got to be a celebration. My brother lives in Brazil so now I can impress him with my knowledge about the countryside caipirinha drink =)

Well I’m glad you got the most important thing figured out first:@) Sounds like a great drink for a hot day!

Here in Portugal we have a big brazilian comunity, so caipirinhas are one of our most popular drinks! In fact, there are a lot of wonderful variations: caipiroska (with black vodka), caipirão (with a wonderful national drink called Licor Beirão) and caipirinha with red fruits… They are delicious 🙂

Have a nice day 🙂

Oh, this drink makes me happy. It reminds me of a mojito, but without the mint. I think I want to come to your 4th gathering.

A very refreshing and delicious summer drink. Thanks for introducing it 🙂

Ooooo, does this sound refreshing and wonderful for a hot summer day!

This drink is one of my favorites-especially good when the temperature rises! Nice photos;-). I’m sure the desserts at your 4th of July party will be over the top amazingly good 😉

That refreshingly delicious boozy drink will surely makes me happy !

Love caiprinha… Its almost like a mojito but a different rum… Great drink!

Liz, I am so ignorant about cocktails. I didn’t even know this mix existed which made me come here out of curiosity. Besides, I always visit you, to check up on your posts. 🙂 Love the color captured in these photos.

It’s 5 o’clock somewhere, right?!

Caipirinha was in fashion here in Greece in the 80’s and 90’s! I consumed quite a few of these babies during my college years haha! You reminded me of my youth my friend! Delicious cocktail!

I know a lot of people that love this drink, but have yet to enjoy a glass myself. Might have to change that now that I know exactly what’s in it!

I am a big fan of this cocktail, it has been too long since I had one. I’ll have one of your glasses for sure 🙂

This sounds like such a refreshing and brilliant drink to cool down with! Will definitely be a winner at any gathering or party 🙂

Brazilian tip: you can try this out with any fruit you like, and you can change the liquor for vodka or saque. My favorite version is vodka with strawberries! 😉

Oh, that sounds incredible! I will try a strawberry version next! Thank you, Bel!

Yum and looks so refreshing too. Must get me some rum…

This looks refreshingly delicious! Last year we received a bottle of Cachaça from a Brazilian friend and it is still unopened, but thank to you not for long 🙂

I love the colour and the flavour of this cocktail 😀

This is right on time Liz thank you. The kids are coming home in a couple of weeks and this will be a hit for sure. Your dessert menu will be a piece of cake.

I´m posting a cherry version (with vodka) this sunday for SS. Who knew you were a caipirinha kind of person! I adore it, and we all do in this city. The small green limes are called caipirinha limes, so you get the idea. About the ice, depends on your drinking speed: use crushed if you down it quickly and cubes if you´re the kind who can wait and sip it slowly. You need to water it down before you drink it, otherwise it´s pure cachaça!

Uni Homemaker says:

This looks so refreshing. A glass of this is what I need right now. I love any cocktail with lime in it. Great post Liz!

This is my husband’s favorite drink. We had them nonstop during our honeymoon in Costa Rica.

My kids would love this! Thanks Lizzy, love your presentation too, those colors are my favorite!

Now there’s a word I can’t spell. I love your lime muddling gadget – another item for my wish list. This cocktail looks like the perfect way to cool down after a hot day xx

Now this is one cocktail that I am definitely going to have to indulge in . . . and quite soon, I might add! Cheers and salute’, Liz!

Such a great drink! This has become one of my summer favorites – so refreshing in hot weather. It’ll be great for your July 4th blowout!

Well, it looks like I chose the perfect time to drop by for a visit. I sure could use that drink right about now. Is Okay if I don’t wait for the 4th? It has been steaming in my neck of the woods and a cool refreshing drink with a bit of newness would sure hit the spot! Now, the question remains, what’s for dessert.

Thank you so much for sharing, Liz…I’ve been meaning to get here for days. So glad I picked tonight!

I’m so ignorant when it comes to cocktails…wouldn’t know one from another. Sounds like a very nice and refreshing cocktail for the summer. Cheers! xoxo

WOW! This sounds like something I would love!

Oh my…I’m getting thirsty just by looking at your cocktail! I haven’t try a Caipirinha yet but from your description and ingredient list, I know I’ll love it. 🙂

This is a perfect summer garden party cocktail!

Anything with lime in refreshing drink is my favorite,great coctail recipe for the party 🙂

Interesting post! You can even make something like that look good in photos. You’re good, Lizzy!

I would like to join your book club. I love this drink, too! And I am so happy you drink and bake. Or is it bake and drink? Have fun on the 4th!

I love how your book club rolls… you’re a wild one Lizzy! This cocktail looks yummy. 🙂

I want to join your book club! Citrus/rum drinks are my summer time favorites. Usually, I make mojitos, just because I knew how. Now I can add caiprinhas! Thanks!

your book club sounds a lot like mine! this looks like the perfect summer cocktail! I’ll close my eyes and imagine my feet in the sand! cheers!

I just love your book club-so much fun! And you know I’m not much of a real drink drinker-but this is one of my favorites…especially when it’s made right. Looks fantastic, Lizzy! xx

I saw this drink being made on TV a few years ago and have wondering about it ever since. I sense it’s the kind of thing that will quickly leave me on my butt and don’t get me started wondering about your “book group.” Hahahahaha

This is a very potent cocktail. You can add a SPLASH of sprite to make it a milder drink without changing the overall taste too much.

Great idea! I found it was much more palatable once the ice started melting 🙂

My girls and I are getting ready to go out dancing, thinking we will whip up a few of these to get us in the mood. Lovely and refreshing. 🙂

Cocktail caipirinha

Classic cocktails are the drinks that have stood the test of time. They are the blueprints on which all other cocktails are based.

Signature cocktails are created by top-flight bartenders as well as the staff of Supercall. Some are seasonal, some are whimsical. All are designed to wow your guests with mixocological magic.

Between the Classic cocktails you know and Signature drinks created by pros lie Standard Deviations: clever riffs on iconic recipes that'll expand your repertoire—without trying your patience.

• top spirits

Classic cocktails are the drinks that have stood the test of time. They are the blueprints on which all other cocktails are based.

Signature cocktails are created by top-flight bartenders as well as the staff of Supercall. Some are seasonal, some are whimsical. All are designed to wow your guests with mixocological magic.

Between the Classic cocktails you know and Signature drinks created by pros lie Standard Deviations: clever riffs on iconic recipes that'll expand your repertoire—without trying your patience.

• top spirits

In Brazil, omitting a Caipirinha from a cocktail menu i.

The French 75’s Caribbean cousin, this potent spritz.

In the 1970s, bars began catering to a new clientele: single.

London’s Garrick Club opened in 1831 as a place for.

The caçacha cocktail, the Caipirinha, has risen to global fame over the last few years thanks to an increased interest in and availability of caçhaca outside of Brazil. The cocktail’s name is derived from a Portuguese pejorative term used to describe working class folk—caipira—which loosely translates to “hillbilly.” But the people of Brazil take no umbrage with the name—they’re too busy enjoying the grassy, citrusy mix of caçhaca, lime and sugar, built directly into the glass. The drink’s history is murky, but most Brazilians agree that the Caipirinha got its start as a 19th century folk remedy for cholera and the Spanish flu (some traditionalists still swear by the cocktail as a cure-all). We’re not sure about the drink’s medical merits, but we can vouch for its undeniable thirst quenching properties.

The Essentials

Ingredients

• Muddle lime wedges and sugar at the bottom of a double old-fashioned glass.
• Add cachaça and top with ice.
• Stir lightly and serve.

There's a whole bunch of things you can do to the Caipirinha. There is an old Brazilian adage, which says that the worse the cachaça, the better the Caipirinha. But we love aged cachaça in a Caipirinha, with some demerara sugar in place of white sugar for a richer, warm flavor. Caipirinhas are also excellent canvases for seasonal fruit and produce. Try muddling plump, sweet-tart blackberries or mango chunks along with the lime, or add fresh ginger for a spicy kick.

Recommended Cachaças: Avuá, Novo Fogo, Pitú, Leblon

In Brazil, omitting a Caipirinha from a cocktail menu is tantamount to heresy. The three-ingredient drink made with cachaça, lime and sugar is the country’s national cocktail. But the ubiquitous drink wouldn’t truly be a classic without a inspiring a few important variations. The most popular is the Caipiroska—a drink made in the exact.

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Caipirinha, a Cocktail Worthy of the Olympics

With the 2016 Olympic Games around the corner the focus is on Brazil. In true Olympic spirit we went through a tasting of the national cocktail, caipirinha.

If you're wondering how to make caipirinha, let's start by saying that caipirinha is made with Brazil’s national distilled spirit cachaça. It’s often called “Brazilian Rum” but that isn’t exactly the case. Rum is often distilled from a sugarcane byproduct, molasses, whereas Cachaça is fermented and distilled straight from the sugarcane juice. They might sound similar on paper, but in the glass it’s a whole different world.

It's safe to say that globally Cachaça is hugely undervalued. It’s seen as the cheap South American booze unworthy of any serious tasting. Only Brazilians and people who have lived there drink it. That might have been true in the past when the general attitude was “no matter how they make it or who makes it, it all tastes the same”.

Nowadays you can find a wide range of small distilleries that make everything from site-specific “terroir” cachaças to old barrel aged ones with the panache of old rums and whiskies.

In a relatively short time a deep appreciation of cachaça has emerged and people have really started getting geeky with it. It is usually consumed with traditional Brazilian food like feijoada, surrounded by friends and family while noisily discussing important things like football, politics and TV soap operas.

The cocktail culture around cachaça is not as developed as with some other spirits like rum or tequila. Although there are bartenders using cachaça in all kinds of cocktails it seems the innovation stopped at caipirinha, the simple drink made of lime, sugar, cachaça and ice, a drink that on a good day can be as good as the best of them.

How to make caipirinha: lime and sugar

Making a good caipirinha isn’t rocket science yet somehow it’s hard to find a good caipirinha outside of Brazil. The first step is the lime. The use of ripe and juicy limes is the cornerstone of this drink. Use too little and what you have is just a cachaça on the rocks with a twist. I’d say at least one whole lime per drink but some use even more.

Then there’s the sugar. I have never seen a Brazilian putting brown sugar in a caipirinha so I suggest we all stop doing that. In fact many Brazilian bartenders use fine sugar to better mix it with the lime juice to balance the acidity, and you know what, it works. No crunchy sugar in my caipirinha, thank you.

The locals seem to be very relaxed with the use of sugar and usually a tablespoon or two does the trick depending on the amount of lime and its ripeness. At this point you mash the sliced lime and sugar together using a muddler. Next you fill the mixing glass with ice and pour over the cachaça.

a good caipirinha? don't be shy with cachaca

There is a certain hand gesture in Brazil where they slap their hands together repeatedly meaning something like “I don’t care”, “whatever” or “do what you like”. Apply this hand gesture here. The exact amount of cachaça is hard to say because nobody uses a measure in Brazil. But I would say don’t be shy with the cachaça. I rarely saw a caipirinha with less than 8cl of cachaça.

Outside of Brazil some tweak the drink by adding mint. In a country where you can get away with pretty much anything with just a quick thumbs-up and cheeky smile, you wont be able to get away with adding mint to your caipirinha. Same goes with soda water. In the end you shake and serve the caipirinha in an old fashioned glass.

caipirinha recipes: a few variations allowed

There is quite a few variations of caipirinha. One of the most well-known versions is caipiroska where instead of cachaça you use vodka, which basically makes it nothing more than a lime juice screwdriver. In Brazil fruits are abundant so there is many delicious substitutes for lime. For example, passion fruit caipirinha seems to be a popular choice.

Alex Atala’s restaurant D.O.M. serves a caju caipirinha that is made with cashew fruit. If you ever find yourself in a situation with caju caipirinhas it’s a must-try. As long as you have cachaça feel free to freestyle, but whatever you do don’t mess with the original caipirinha.

So, whether you are watching the Summer Olympics or not it would be unwise to skip this magnificent cocktail. Saúde!

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Caipirinha

Recipe by ekives

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Caipirinha

SERVES:

Ingredients Nutrition

• 1 lime
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 ⁄₂ cup cachaca or 1 ⁄₂ cup white rum or 1 ⁄₂ cup vodka or 1 ⁄₂ cup sake
• ice

Directions

1. Cut the lime in quarters then cut them crosswise.
2. Put lime and sugar in a tall glass and mash with a pestle (or a wood spoon, rolling pin, etc).
3. Add the same amount of liquor on the lime juice and stirr.
4. Add ice and stirr again.
5. Here in Brazil, the guys that sell it at the beach put another glass upside down over it, hold both with one hand and shake.
6. Great trick at parties.

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Nutrition Info

Serving Size: 1 (212 g)

Servings Per Recipe: 1

Amt. Per Serving % Daily Value Calories 325.7 Calories from Fat 1 0% Total Fat 0.1 g 0% Saturated Fat 0 g 0% Cholesterol 0 mg 0% Sodium 2.6 mg 0% Total Carbohydrate 19.7 g 6% Dietary Fiber 1.9 g 7% Sugars 13.7 g 54% Protein 0.5 g 0%